


Inheritance

by litra



Category: Batman Beyond
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Gen, Matt knows the secret, Metahumans, Poison, Secret Identity, Secrets, new supervillian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-03-14 14:23:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 20,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: Gotham's in the middle of a rising crime wave and Matt falls victim to a new virus.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THIS PLEASE:  
> Okay now that I have your attention. This story is technically a sequel. The problem is that I wrote the first story back in 2011. It was my first major fanfic, and while I want to go back and give it the rewrite it needs and deserves... I haven't done so yet. But keeping the first several chapters of this story tucked away on my computer seems a waste.  
> If you want to go read the first story it's at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6640053/1/Partners  
> I'll give a summary in the closing notes if you want to dive into this story right away and there will be more info in chapter 2.
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you to Nequam_Tenshi for the beta, all further errors are mine. :)

Batman ducked the fireball that had been lobbed in his direction. The young hothead wearing the Sevens logo on his jacket didn't have particularly good aim but when you were throwing superheated balls of plasma that didn't seem to overly matter. The billboard Batman was hovering in front of was converted into liquid with a sound that was oddly similar to a kettle going off. Batman sent a pair of batarangs at the pyrokinetic and his partner. Luckily the partner was only holding a laser rifle, but Batman hadn't ruled out him having powers as well.

Batman jumped high again keeping his wings out to make himself a target against the spotlights and other neon that the city had painted itself in for the holiday season. Thanksgiving was only four days ago and already nearly every building had signs of forced Christmas cheer. The current target for destruction was no exception; in fact, it was the center of a hub of sound and light that proclaimed itself festive.

The fête des lumières might have even achieved its goal if the night had been quiet and the forecast had been snow rather than the depressing frozen rain and sleet that they'd been getting off and on since Halloween. Terry hadn't been to the festival of lights in a few years since it was more of a family attraction, but what he remembered had been nice.

So, of course, the Sevens had decided it needed to be destroyed.

The Sevens were getting more and more annoying lately. They had been slowly growing as a gang presence in the city since early summer. They didn't have the foothold that the Ts had or the numbers that the Joker's boasted but a few of their members had turned out to have powers, which was turning into a real pain to deal with.

“Your section of the show is clear. You should be able to handle them without distractions. Gordon's people are still three minutes out but the local security has the perimeter established.” Wayne's tones in his ear were a blessing.

“Time for me to stop playing decoy then,” Batman said, dark joy filtering into his voice, not all of it from the synthesizer. Up to that point he had let the various twinkling structures outline his form but if the civilians were out of danger, it was time for that to end.

Switching his visor to heat-vision turned the world red. For a moment, he had to fight a flinch but he was already moving into the next act in this chain. Two flash grenades landed at either end of the path, whiting out the whole area to anyone with normal vision. The two Sevens had their arms raised, flinching away almost before the light hit them. The pyro tossed another ball of plasma into the air but blinded his aim was even worse if that was possible. The fireball arched up only to come crashing down on the giant Frosty the Snowman structure forty feet away. The artfully rendered snowman burst into a further cascade of golden sparks before the circuit breakers kicked in and the whole thing went dark.

Batman casually aimed a batarang at the nearest fusebox and the rest of the lane followed Frosty's example. It wasn't exactly dark, they were still in the middle of a city, but for someone whose eyes had just been fried by the equivalent of ten thousand flashbulbs, it might as well be pitch.

Batman dropped to the ground, slipping in behind the pyrokinetic and delivering a jab to the guy's neck that would take him out of the fight. He knocked the second guy's gun away with a back kick that continued into a sweep and took the guy's feet out from under him. Batman considered knocking the second guy out as well but decided to leave him awake for the police instead. He settled on tying him up in an uncomfortable position.

“ETA on Gordon?”

“Give them another minute, then you should be able to slip away.”

Terry waited the required minute tucked into a shadowy corner. Once the officers arrived, Batman slipped away with his usual discretion. It was only nine so he headed back to the car to continue his patrol rather than head home or back to the cave. The holidays were apparently something of a busy time for criminals which meant he got dragged along for the ride. At least he didn't have any ice-themed villains. Metropolis had already been frozen over once this season. It had been someone new there as well; what had he called himself again? Sub-zero, ultimate zero …  not that it really mattered. The League had needed about five minutes to take him down and spent the rest of the day hosting the biggest snowball fight they could with anyone who wanted to join in.

Come to think of it, maybe, having an ice villain wouldn't be too bad. The fact that it had been a kid though…

“Hey old man, that pyro, do we have a file on him? I'm pretty sure the Sevens have someone who can make things blow up but I don't remember any fireballs last time around.” Batman was behind the wheel now and brought the car up to rooftop level. He had Bruce speaking out of the car's radio rather than the comms; the ambient sounds of the Batcave providing a soothing background to the voice Terry always had in his ear.

“You're thinking of the short blond who accelerates chemical reactions. No, this one appears to be new.”

“Great, add another meta I have to deal with on a regular basis. They're coming out of the woodwork. You know I don't remember there being half this many meta's when I was growing up. Maybe there is something to that whole heroes attract villains theory.”

“More likely it's your age group. Metahuman activity has increased fourteen percent all across the country and not just here in Gotham.” Keys clacked behind the words and Batman could almost see the old man pulling up statistics.

“Oh, great, that's so much more comforting. What do you mean it's my age group anyway, what's that have to do with it?”

“Three years before you were born the MGS was ruled unethical by the CDC.”

“Want to try that again without the acronyms?”

“Three years before you were born the Metagene Suppressant was ruled unethical by the Center for Disease Control.” The eye roll was audible. “By that point, the age of heroes created by the first emergence of the Justice League had ended and the ratio of metahumans in the population was at a record low. Since that included villains, as well as heroes, people were less concerned about an outcome that would only manifest years later. It was also a very controversial subject, controlling gene manipulation always will be.”

“Considering all the splicers I have to deal with I can see their point.”

“There's a robbery in progress two blocks north of you.”

“On it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of Partners:  
> In Partners it was revealed that Matt secretly knew Terry was Batman. Then Terry's memories of being Batman were erased. Matt snuck into the batcave and stole the Robin suit. He alerted Commissioner Gordon, except she'd also had her memories erased. Returning to the cave Matt was caught by Bruce (yep his memories were gone too, but that didn't stop him) Bruce used the batcave's computer to catch up on things. Terry got a crash course in using the bat suit, just in time for Shriek to attack. It came out that ***SPOILER*** Shriek and Spellbinder had teamed up to hypnotize Terry and Co. They kidnapped a young cop, Ian Hawk, thinking he was Batman. Matt snuck off tracking Ian. Terry tracked Matt. Matt was injured, and Terry had a scare where it looked like he killed a guy, but they managed to get the algorithm used the erase their memories. Bruce was able to reverse it, but in doing so it erased their memories of the weeks they didn't have their memories. Matt went back to acting as if he didn't know while secretly training to be Robin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to Nequam_Tenshi for betaing. any further errors are mine. :)

 

The towers of Neo-Gotham were glittering. Light came flooding out of spire windows and bounced back from the grey sky. It came through fog and sleet and reflected back from wet cement. It was bright and cold, and for every bit of cheer, there was two parts pain. This was Gotham after all.

Brian huddled in his dark green sweatshirt. He was small for his age; making his fifteen years look more like thirteen. It made it easier to get around on the fringes of the good neighborhoods. The parents there were less likely to look at him and instantly think troublemaker especially if he played the little boy lost card. The good neighborhoods always had more places you could get warm if you were careful. Their street lights weren't broken, the bus stops had roofs on the shelters, and if he was careful, Brian could sometimes get into one of the gardens where the climate was controlled so the plants wouldn't freeze during the winter.

Today was one of the good days. Brian had slipped into the biodome at the tail end of a group of soccer kids before sneaking into the more garden oriented section. In the summer the bushes he hid behind would be full of flowers, but for the time being, the area was clear. To be safe he kept on the move. The better neighborhoods meant better security as well as everything else. Around here, people actually cared if things got vandalized or if someone who didn’t fit right stuck around too long. It didn't matter that this biodome was technically open to the public or that as long as he wasn't damaging public property or anything, he should have been allowed to stay. Still, there were a few things he could do to get people like that to leave him alone.

Brian headed for the greenhouse in the corner of the dome and slipped inside. Pulling a notebook out of his jacket, he sat on one of the overly large pots. Here he was able to relax. He would pretend to be working on a project for school if anyone asked and he could spend three maybe four hours in the amazing warmth the greenhouse provided. To keep his hands moving and add an element to his story, he picked out a plant and started sketching. The smoky red rose was curled around its trellis like it was trying to strangle it.

 

***

 

Matt routed his signal through three other countries before connecting back to the cave. He wasn't sure it was totally necessary since Mr. Wayne had dropped plenty of hints that he knew what the young Robin was up to, but it felt right all the same.

The adventure seven months ago hadn't been planned and it hadn't been repeated since then. For one week back in May, he had stolen the Robin costume and helped to save the city after the memories of Bruce, Terry, and Commissioner Gordon had been scrambled. It had been a desperate time leaving him the only one with full knowledge of the secret and then only because he had been secretly hacking into the Batcave using Terry's access before the misadventure. Everything had gotten fixed since then, and now he had his own access through the Robin account.

The only downside was that no one remembered what he had done. He had thought about telling them straight out; Forcing them to acknowledge him. But then he had pondered what would happen if something like that had happened again. This time there would be no safeguard left behind to remind everyone.

There were also everyone's protests to consider. Gordon had certainly been the loudest voice, but Mr. Wayne had only acquiesced because there wasn't really another option and Terry had already split by that point. And that as when he knew what was going on and they didn’t. With things the other way around, there was no way they’d let him help.

After some consideration, Matt had decided to give himself as much training as possible and wait until he was needed again, or until he turned fifteen, whichever came first. Fifteen seems like a good age to step forward but he had a feeling he won't need to wait that long.

In the meantime, he read all the books that Terry brought home from work. He practiced Aikido and Judo at Kairi's dojo and convincing their mom to let that happen hadn't been easy. He practiced tumbling and other gymnastics, after school when his mom thought he was at the rec center.

Matt slipped into the crowds around Gotham University. It wasn’t hard to tune one of the spare communicators to the campus security frequency. Once he knew their pattern he slipped into lecture halls and took notes on things he didn't have the background to understand, but tried to piece together anyway.

He spent time on simulators in the arcade, learning to drive and fly every vehicle he could, in as realistic a setting as he can manage. He knew there were some things he could only learn from Mr. Wayne, but he also knew that that time would come. After long days, Matt slipped into his room, turned on his stolen bat communicator, and settled in to learn a whole other list of wonders.

Sometimes people asked about the scar on his leg. The story changed depending on who was asking. Sometimes he crashed his bike. Sometimes he couldn’t remember because it happened when he was little. Sometimes it happened as part of that story his mom likes to tell, about how he got attacked by a pelican at the beach and his dad fought it off. The story he doesn't tell is how he got it from a super-villain who was about to start torturing him. It doesn't bother him; Terry has scars he doesn't talk about too.

Robin is now part of him. A persona that had been internalized but that no one ever saw. He dreamed about the suit he would build for himself; discarding the decades-old hand-me-down that had been the only option last time around.

For now though, Robin was stuck watching from the sidelines as Batman got to throw all the punches. He followed patterns, stole files from the archives, and went over old cases - trying to find the flow of the detective work.

Matt finished his homework with the communicator propped up on one side of his desk. His mom had the late shift at the hospital tonight so he didn't have to hide it. She was taking the unfavorable shifts now so they’d be able to have Christmas together. With Terry's luck, someone would try to blow up the world that day but one could always hope.

Terry took down a pair of thieves who had no idea what they were doing if the feed from the communicator was to be believed. With homework done, Robin settled into his own work. According to statistics from the past few years, crime wouldn't spike until after New Years, when the cold had settled in and people were getting desperate. Right now the Christmas cheer was doing its job. There was something else that was bothering Robin though. It was hard to pin down, something about the weather, and the fact that even now after Thanksgiving, some of the trees on campus still held onto a few of their leaves. Temperatures were the highest they had been in seven years. Major crimes were down but minor crimes were up because of the meta-factor.

It was driving him nuts. He knew there was something there, but Matt couldn't seem to pin it down. There wasn't anything in the files either, he had gone through all of Mr. Wayne's active case files and nothing matched up with what he was seeing. Maybe that was what it was, him just seeing things. Maybe he was just grasping at straws and finding patterns where there were none. Maybe Mr. Wayne was seeing all the same things and already knew they meant nothing.

The phone rang and Robin pushed away from his computer to answer it, falling back into being Matt as he went. “Hello?” Robin's voice was steady, confident, even if he didn't have the depth yet, but Matt's voice was light and always mocking or whining or laughing, full of obvious emotion and easy to read. Matt was still a child who hadn't seen the worst the world had to offer.

“You should be asleep young man.” His mom didn't bother with a greeting; she just started in on him.

“I was doing homework I swear.”

“Oh really. Are you sure you weren't just on your computer playing games?”

“No, well, only a little, but I did work on my homework, promise.”

On the other end of the line, his mom paused and he could almost see the look she would be giving him. Finally, she sighed. “Alright, but I expect you to go straight to bed after this. Is your brother home?”

“No, he called and said there was a mix up with the decorations for the Wayne Christmas party and he would be late.” It had been a text and it had been from Bruce, or more likely, some automatic procedure of the Batcomputer, but Matt wasn’t going to make a big deal about it.

“Alright,” she didn't sound surprised. “You get to bed now, hear me? You don't want to be falling asleep when we go skating tomorrow.”

He had forgotten about that. Ice-skating was a tradition; one that he had been looking forward to. “Right!” this time the excitement in his voice wasn't faked.

***

Brian woke to the sound of the greenhouse door rattling. It was dark outside and any excuse he might have used wouldn’t be believed. A glance through the leaves showed a maintenance guy, probably doing one last sweep before locking up for the night.

Brian scrambled off the bench, abandoning his notebook in an attempt to find somewhere to hide. Something tugged at his attention, A vent, it’s cover half overgrown with moss. It came free easily with the moss blunting any sharp edges. The inside of the vent should have been too small, but again, moss had covered the walls and made squeezing forward easier. He was nearly in when a hand caught at his ankle and dragged him back into the artificial light.

“What do you think you’re doing brat. I should have you arrested.” The maintenance man snarled. Brian just covered his head and tried to look small. The man half dragged him to the edge of the biodome, booting him out the door, and shouting at him to not come back.

Brian stumbled, tried to catch his breath and pushed himself up. He ran for a block and a half, keeping out of sight. when he slowed down, he pulled his coat tighter around his shoulders. He was hungry and cold after the warmth of the greenhouse, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick FYI: a few days after I posted the last chapter I went back and realized a section was missing. I fixed it, but If you read it before I did so, then you might want to glance back, and check it out. :P

Terry came home late that night, well - late for a normal person. For him it was about average. Matt had slowly built up his own alarm system around the house, including slipping motion detectors on all the windows, his brother's included. The system buzzed to life around 3:30 in the morning, and Matt grabbed the controller off his bedside table before it could fall to the ground or make any noise. He padded down the hall, confirming it was actually Terry, and grabbing a glass of water before heading back to bed.

The next morning Matt was up and loudly exclaiming about the ice-skating trip, long before Terry or his mom wanted to be out of bed. Terry hadn't been putting in much face time, and while he had managed to pull his grades back up, Matt knew the look their mom got when she was starting to get a little too concerned for her eldest son.

Somehow Matt managed to cajole and whine until he got his small family as enthusiastic as he was, or at least pretending to be to humor him. For once, no disaster sprang up on the way there, though Terry was obviously not dragging his backpack around for kicks.

The ice rink was always crowded this time of year, even more so on a Saturday. Matt didn't have to pretend to be excited. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet as they shuffled to the front of the line and were handed ice-skates in the appropriate sizes. Terry was distracted his eyes dancing over the crowd. Matt tried to watch Terry as he put on his skates. His brother was in Batman mode; something had gotten his hackles up but Matt couldn’t tell what it was.

“Terry?” Their mom asked.

Terry shook his head and smiled, “It’s nothing. They gave me the wrong size.” He held up his skates and gestured to the counter, “I’m gonna go swap them.”

Matt watched him go, but it didn’t look like Terry was going to sneak away. He went back to his skates. 

Matt slipped onto the ice with ease, staying by the wall only long enough to get his feet under him before he pushed out to the center of the rink. It took him four circuits before he started picking up on the bad vibe that Terry had noticed.

Something was off. It was crowded but not crowded enough. There should have been more kids his own age out on the ice but the only ones he noticed were sitting in the waiting area, where the heaters were blasting warm air over the old wooden benches. The movement on the ice was off as well. Most of the skaters were like himself, moving confidently in the middle of the rink. There should have been dozens of people clinging to the walls, pushing themselves along, and holding their arms out as they nearly lost their balance.

Matt watched one young woman wobble and fall sliding slightly on the ice. She didn’t seem hurt. It had been fairly gentle as these things went. But she hesitated a moment, rocking back and forth before clumsily pushing herself to her feet. She clutched the wall for another moment then pushed herself toward the gate, and stepped off the ice.

Matt headed over to the spot she had fallen. Nothing seemed off. It was just another patch of ice. He looked around. Another couple that had been sticking to the walls stepped off the ice. One of them was pinching at her forehead with her thumb and forefinger as if fighting off a headache. He was certain of it now. Something was definitely off. He looked around, trying to pick out as many details as he could, and piece them together; using the time to catch his breath from his first few laps.

Only his heart rate wasn’t going down. Something caught in his chest and he coughed. His knees wobbled and Matt clawed at the wall for support. He was bent over sucking in air that somehow wasn’t filling his lungs. He slipped sideways collapsing to one side, his face pressed against one of the vents that blasted cold air over the outdoor rink, keeping the ice at a level temperature.

“Terry.” It was weak barely reaching the level of normal conversation but it was enough.

 

***

 

Terry glanced over at the hint of his name. Something had been picking at him and his senses were running on overdrive trying to figure out the cause. His eyes scanned the rink, causing him to stop mid-sentence when he couldn’t find Matt’s familiar knitted cap. Then through the crowd, he saw the collapsed figure.

“Matt!”

Terry was across the waiting area in seconds, vaulting over the half-wall rather than bothering with the gate. He hadn’t bothered to put on the skates, but his sneakers found enough traction to get him across to his little brother without putting him on his ass. Matt was alive but his breath kept catching in his chest and his eyes had rolled back and glazed over like he was having some kind of fit. His pulse was strong but erratic.

People were starting to stop and stare. Terry ignored them, picking up his brother and hauling him off the ice. “Call 911! I need a doctor.”

Their mom pressed through the crowd. “Terry, what on earth. Matt! What happened? Is he alright?”

“No, Mom I need you to call 911.” Terry laid Matt down on a hastily vacated bench and checked his pulse again. Still there but his lungs still weren’t expanding. Terry’s world shrank down to those two facts.

He started rescue breathing, counting off the beats between breaths.

An eon later the paramedics arrived, switching off with him and bundling Matt into an ambulance. Terry went with him. Their mom offered to take his place, but he said no, and after he had spent the last minutes or hours or however long it had been, breathing for his little brother, the paramedics weren’t going to argue.

He didn’t hesitate to use Wayne’s name when they got to the Thomas Wayne Memorial Hospital. At some point he sent out a text to the old man, explaining things, and after that, there weren’t any questions, just open doors and people eager to please. Terry didn’t really come out of the stupor until his mom arrived, sitting down on the other chair next to Matt’s bed in the high-end private room they had been offered.

“Terry?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

She didn’t bother asking if everything was alright. Her youngest was only breathing because Matt was hooked up to the respirator.

“What did they say?”

“They can’t explain it.” He paused taking a breath and straightening up in his seat. “They think it’s some kind of toxin. Won’t know what until the blood work gets back. No Idea how it could have got into his system. It’s coating his lungs or something, making it hard for him to breath. The respirator is helping and they’ve got him on oxygen now.”

She reached out taking his hand. She didn’t say anything. Their mother was just as scared as he was and anything she did try to say would come out sounding false.


	4. Chapter 4

Terry slammed a fist into the cave wall.

“Calm down. There’s nothing you can do for him there. He’s already under the best care. The only thing sitting by his bedside will do is take Batman away from the city.”Wayne said in a furiously level voice.

“I know, slag it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Bruce Wayne turned in his chair in front of the Batcave’s supercomputer. He looked Terry over. The young Batman was suited up except for his mask, but he was still acting like a punk kid rather the protector of Gotham.

“Anger is only useful if you channel it.”

“Then give me something to punch. That’s why you called me in here isn’t it?” Terry was shouting; the words echoing off the stone walls.

Bruce scowled but typed a command into the computer. The Batwing responded, prepping its engines and sliding open its cockpit. “The cops have moved their forces into the narrows to deal with the extra gang activity which means the docks are going to be undermanned.”

Terry pulled on his mask. He was grumbling but he went. Bruce watched him fly away and almost felt sorry for anyone trying to smuggle anything into Gotham tonight.

With one of the Mcguinnis boys taken care of, Bruce looked in on the other. There was no real change in Matt’s condition. The spores they had found in his lungs were slowly starving him of air and, in less than fourteen days, it would kill him; even with the oxygen he was administered.

Spores. There was something about that, but he had already downloaded a genetic signature along with everything else the doctors had and a cross-reference had come up empty. This wasn’t something left over from Poison Ivy or any of the other plant-based supervillains he’d faced. Ivy was the closest but nearly every plant in Gotham bore her manipulative signature to some extent. 

This wasn’t her though, he’d checked. Ivy had died a decade ago, and there was no sign she’d been resurrected.

Bruce widened his net, looking for any correlation to the case. The deep data mining the supercomputer was capable of didn’t have the intuitive nature of his own mind but it had access to a lot of information.

What it came up with were parallel cases. Asthma cases that bore all the symptoms but hadn’t been flagged because the patients had been from poorer neighborhoods and couldn’t afford more than to stop in at a free clinic. It was only two dozen people so far; all young, Matt’s age or elderly and at risk in other ways.

He steepled his fingers and had the computer pull up the files. They were sparse in some cases missing entirely and in most the doctors had been careless. They had seen what they expected rather than doing the proper tests, but in two cases the tests had been run and the spores had been apparent. The doctors had marked them as unknown particles and were awaiting further data.

Bruce sent out an ambiguously worded memo to all the doctors working on Matt’s case, as well as the heads of the appropriate departments. He attached the files of the two children who had shown definite sign of infection, along with the rest of the names that his system had red-flagged. The memo would come from one of the temporary logins at the free clinics but it would have all the appropriate tags to get set as a high priority.

Tracking down those affected and working to create an antidote was something better left to professionals who could give it their full attention, that was why Bruce kept them around. He suspected however that they would need the source before a true vaccine could be synthesized and that was something he could move forward on.  

 

<><><>

 

Brian pulled himself in tighter. Trying to fit his legs into the little dry spot he’d found. The rain was coming down, not hard but soaking, and every time he coughed, his body spasmed. His pants were already damp all the way through from the water he kept kicking up. He’d managed to grab a decent jacket at the last charity thing he’d gone to, but his jeans were threadbare enough that goosebumps rose on his legs. It would take hours for them to dry out even if he had an actual room for the night. 

When the crash of a broken bottle came from the other end of the cramped alley, he held his breath, praying whoever it was would go away again. No such luck.

The guy was another of the city’s dregs. Probably didn’t own anything but what he was wearing and the bottle he was swigging from. He was probably out looking for a spot out of the rain, and Brian had the only one around.

Another wave of wracking coughs made his attempt at hiding pointless. It felt like there were vines burrowing into his blood and squeezing his lungs. He sucked in a breath. His vision started swimming; the yellow light that was filtering into the alley turned green.

The man had heard him stumbled forward, growling and grumbling. He saw the nook where Brian was sitting over a vent that sent heat up from the subway. Kicking at Brian, the drunk took another swig from his bottle and tossed it aside, empty.

Brian tried to pull himself out of the way, not willing to give up his spot without as much of a struggle as he could put up. The guy bent, pawing at Brian, trying to drag him out of the way, and Brian pushed back.

His hand hit the man’s chest, fingers clawing at the cotton. He felt the fibers twist together. There was the smell of cheap cigarettes, the old damp wood of the packing crates stacked against one wall and mold, and moss clinging to the city, just like he was. Still alive. Still. Alive.

Brian twisted and pushed.

The man stumbled back, crying out before gasping. He hacked up one cough, harsher than anything, Brian had been subject to. The air really was green now, coming up through the vent and climbing the walls of the cramped space. The man struggled for breath, falling to his knees. His next cough sprayed blood through the air and down his front. He collapsed, shuddering one last time before he went still.

Brian pulled in a breath full of green and felt his lungs ease. He was light-headed almost giddy now that he could breathe again. The man’s blood slowly pooled around his lifeless face. Brilliant red, and green all around him. Like the rose….

 

<><><>

  
  


For six weeks, Ian Hawk had officially been part of the Gotham Major Crimes Unit, also known as Commissioner Barbara Gordon’s personal task force. When he’d first been reassigned and giving a new partner, he had expected more explosions. After all, explosions and torture were what had gotten him promoted, well, that and catching the eye of Robin.

When the young hero had first approached him he had assumed his life expectancy had dropped to hours. In the end, it had been a close thing. Of course, Robin had vanished after that fiasco and hadn’t resurfaced since so what that said for Ian’s career he didn’t know.

As it turned out his expectations had been a bit off. It was true that the MCU handled everything from super villains to doomsday devices to coordinating with the Justice League, but they also handled all the weird stuff that fell through the departmental cracks. For example, the gang unit was pulling all the strings they could because crime was up two hundred percent over last year. And here he was staking out the Gotham Museum of Modern Art because the ambassador from Peru had donated several pieces to the collection and wanted a private showing.

Jai West, Ian’s new partner, didn’t seem to mind getting stuck with all the boring jobs along with the new guy. Jai didn’t seem to mind anything. To him, the world was one big constant joke. Ian didn’t know if he should find it annoying or refreshing.

Museum security crackled onto the radio. “Looks like the Ambassador’s about done for the night. He and his date are heading to the North exit and his car’s being brought around.”

“Thanks for the update guys” Jai answered. “We’ll make sure he gets back to his hotel, thanks for all your hard work. Now go get some sleep.”

“Yeah, you know it.”

Jai started up the car and moved to shadow the ambassador's vehicle. “Well, that was fast. Guess he just wanted to show off a bit huh?”

The ambassador had been in the museum for less than two hours. Ian shrugged. “Guess so. It makes our job easier though.”

“You know if you keep expecting every assignment to blow up in your face the stress will drive you crazy. You’ve got to live in the moment, relax a little. Go get a drink every once in a while.”

Ian laughed. “Maybe next time. I think tonight I’ll just stay in with my girl.”

“Well, that certainly works too. Tell her hi for me.” Ian nodded and they turned onto upper ninth. The ambassador's car was just pulling in to the hotel when the call came in. A wide frequency burst across all the channels requesting immediate response from the nearest unit.

Ian pulled up the passenger side console and checked the feed. The threat was code GI-441: a threat to city infrastructure.

“Someone’s broken into the air and water filtration plant for the lower levels. The facility on seventh and Pine. The first alert went out to the security firm eleven minutes ago, and now the safeguards are registering at 40% -- no 45% failure,” Ian reported.

Jai was already turning the car around. “Eight blocks, call it in. ETA six minutes.”


	5. Chapter 5

Batman heard the alert about the filtration plant go out on the police channel, and turned the Batwing around. The filtration system was a higher priority and for once the docks were completely devoid of illegal activity for him to take his frustrations out on.

The air filtration plant was a long low building that sat atop the water filtration system. The kindest word to describe it was utilitarian. Enough people had tried to poison the water supply over the years that the city had forked up for a state of the art security system. Three levels of authorization were required to get into the machinery and everything was automated.  There wasn’t even a key for the third level; just a bio lock that would only let two people in the city through.

As Batman hovered over the building, he could see how the security had been hacked. The outer level of the security had been bypassed in the traditional way. The outer doors were hanging open, the locks hanging broken from the frame. He set the Batwing to idle over the side of the building and dropped to the pavement while activating his camouflage as he stepped through the door.

The pace was already spartan, but the few trappings it did have had been tossed on the floor. It was a casual show of power that didn’t do any real damage, and something a professional would never bother with. Batman quickened his pace.

Outside the second set of doors, there was a stunned technician. He’d been hit over the head but was coming around and a casual once-over showed no major injuries. Turning off the stealth, Batman knelt in front of the man.

“Hey, you okay? Who did this?”

The man raised a hand to his bleeding forehead then winced and closed his eyes. “I don’t know. I heard them as I was coming out. I was running a system patch. They hit me as soon as I came through the door.  Must have taken my access card.”

“Did you see how many there were?”

“Umm three, four? Maybe more. Like I said I only heard them.”

“That’s fine. The alarm’s already gone out, cops on their way. When they get here, tell them what you told me.” Batman was fully camouflaged again before he was through the door.

Beyond the second checkpoint, the building was dark only lit by red track lights around the exits. Batman switched his visor to thermal and noted higher than normal level of radiation in the area. Nothing too dangerous to him but people without protection wouldn’t want to spend lengths of time there.

The beam of a flashlight briefly cut across the wall ahead of him. A few running steps and he was pressed against the wall, glancing around the corner.

Well, now he knew what had triggered the GI-404. The idiots hadn’t tried to bypass the security of the last checkpoint. They’d just blown it up. They’d use enough C4 to take out the steel door, the walls around it, and a good portion of the support structure for that entire end of the building. The idiots were lucky they hadn’t brought the ceiling down on top of them.

The light came his way again and Batman pinpointed the culprits.

Jokerz. Because no one else would break into one of the highest secured buildings in the city for shits and giggles. There were five of them out on the catwalks that bordered the big room.

Above them, pressurized canisters were sending steam and worse shooting in streams through the air as the air filtration system for the city buckled, but the idiots were all hanging over the rail looking at the water purification system below them rather than the more immediate danger.

One of them was waving a hand, gesturing out over the vats, another pointed in response and a brief shoving match muffled Batman’s approach.

“I’m tellin’ ya man that’s how it happened.”

“He didn’t just jump in. No one’s that crazy.”

“Even Joker? He be crazy.”

“Crazy’r than a dreg like you.”  

One of them grabbed another and shoved him at the railing. “Do it then.”

“Na, Man. It was Dig’s idea, he should do it.” They all looked at a member of the group with purple hair and a half white half black face. Dig, apparently.

“Wasn’t my idea.” Dig protested. “I was just telling the story. Wes’s the one who said we should break in.”

The attention turned to a female Joker in red and black, her face split into quarters with playing card suits on her cheeks and forehead.

“Weren’t me.” she pouted.

Because he’d rather not have history repeat itself Batman crept around the group, balancing on the railing between them and the chemicals.

“So let me get this straight,” Batman said turning off the stepping seeming out of thin air. “You heard the Joker went insane by jumping into a vat of chemicals and thought you’d try it, but when you got here you chickened out?”

“Slag! it’s the Bat.” One of them yelled, and suddenly they were all panicking. One of them pulled out a blaster, another reached for a baseball bat, slung over his shoulder. The rest of them turned and fled, pushing each other out of the way to get back through the door. Wes, the one with the playing card face, stumbled and grabbed at the edge of the rubble that had been a door.

Batman took her out first under the logic that it meant one less Joker to deal with later. One knockout batarang to the rubble next to her head and the gas knocked her out before she could get back on her feet. By that point, the two runners were gone, but Batman wasn’t worried about them. Either the cops would pick them up or not, but they weren’t going to cause any more trouble tonight. The two Jokerz in front of him were a slightly different matter.

The first was tall and lean, wearing a straightjacket with the sleeves in shreds. He was the one with the blaster. The other was a classic bruiser, scars over his arms and a nose that had been broken at some point. His only claim to jokerdom was a yellow button on his jacket of a smiley face.

Smiley came in swinging as soon as his bat was free, but he was still a second behind Straightjacket’s first shot. Batman ducked down to the side, then charged in and hit Smiley like a lineman. He lost his grip on the baseball bat sending it flying over the edge. The joker blocked well enough to handle Batman’s momentum but with the suit, the man was outclassed in raw strength. Batman stepped in grabbing a fistful of the guy’s pants and popping the Jokerz supporting knee out from under him.

With a cry of surprise, Smiley went over sideways, flailing his arms in an attempt to catch himself. Unfortunately, Smiley’s fall cleared the line of sight for Straightjacket to open up on Batman.

The first two shots went wide and by that time Batman was moving again. He jumped over Smiley’s bulk taking a shot in the shoulder that was absorbed by the armor before he could grab the gun, tearing it out of the second Jokerz’ trembling hand. After that, a sharp blow to the jaw put him down.

Batman took a breath and rose to his full height, looking at the Jokerz at his feet. He was still tense; it hadn’t been nearly enough of a fight to tire him out. But even if the two who had run had stayed and they’d all attacked together, he doubted the outcome would have been any different.

He pulled out a trio of cuffs and looked up at the ceiling again and the broken mechanics of the air filtration system.

Smiley, as it turned out, could still stumble to his feet. Batman glanced at him and said. “You can either walk out of here.” he held out the cuffs. “Or I knock you out too and you’ll have to hope the roof doesn’t come down on you before the cops show up.” The guy’s spirit was already broken. He went willingly while Batman hoisted the other two - one on each shoulder.

There were more flashlights back where Batman left the technician. Two cops were already pointing guns at them when Smiley went through the door.

“Hands up.” one of the cops ordered. The older of the two, a guy with red hair.

Smiley raised his cuffed hands causing the two cops to glance at each other.

“They’ve already surrendered.” Batman stepped into the room. He noted the two jokerz who’d run bound up in the cops restraints and sitting by one wall. Dumping his two unconscious jokerz next to them he turned back to the officers.

“These idiots blew up the third level security door. There’s structural damage; you’ll want to call it in.”

“Technicians are already on their way.” Commissioner Gordon said stepping out of the shadows. The younger of the two cops flinched.

“Commissioner.” Batman inclined his head.

“Batman.”

“You got here quickly.”

“I was in the neighborhood.”

“Fine, they’re all yours.” Batman waved at the collection of people in the room, the jokerz, bound and unconscious, Smiley still with his hands in the air. He turned to the door.

“Batman.” Barbara snapped at the same time the young cop shouted.

“Thank you.”

Batman half turned, looking more at the young officer than Barbara. The kid had dark hair and a build that made it look like he didn’t get enough to eat. He also had scars covering the visible skin on his arms, disappearing up under his shirt.

“You saved my life last spring,” he said. “I never got a chance to thank you.”

Batman dug around for a matching memory but all he came up with was a flash of red. Red on his hands. 

“Can you thank Robin for me too? I ah-” the cop scratched at the back of his neck, and glanced at Gordon “I don’t think he should be out here getting into trouble or anything, but I hope he’s okay.”

Batman’s pulse raced faster then it had through the whole fight. He didn’t have a Robin, had never had a Robin. This cop wasn’t talking distant past. He looked like he was only a few years older than Terry, and yeah maybe he was familiar after all. Not that Batman could kriffing place where he’d seen him.

He nodded slowly. The cop didn’t say anything else, just nodded back.

If he were any other hero he’d have to say something, make nice with the guy, but he wasn’t. Gordon hadn’t said anything else so with a half step back he vanished into the night.


	6. Chapter 6

"Yes, thank you. I'll be fine from here." Bruce assured the nurse. She had been falling over herself to help him ever since she realized who he was, but after a lifetime, he was adept at handling it.

She nodded several times smiling nervously and shut the door. Bruce dropped the fake smile. 

The room was the same one he'd seen on the security feed.

Terry was at school and Mary, at work, so it was just Matt and himself. Matt McGinnis was tucked into the bed with a mask over his face and a machine breathing for him.  His chart was up on the wall-screen along with his vitals. Bruce already had all of that information from his hacking the night before. The doctors had received his alert and were putting things into motion. Bruce wasn't sure if it would be enough.

Bruce remembered mentioning the meta-plague to Terry, but the boy couldn't possibly understand the enormity of it. Heroes and villains and civilians alike falling in the streets and being rushed to overcrowded hospitals. Without the antidote, anyone with the metagene had been susceptible, and with regular humans, as carriers, there had been no possibility of containment.

He had to be sure. 

The reemergence of the metagene in the general population could have triggered a backlash if the virus had mutated or lain dormant. The spores could have just been attacking a weakness the virus was bringing up to the surface.

Bruce had quietly run dozens of tests on Terry, establishing a baseline. It had been the key to returning his humanity after the slicer incident. After Matt had gotten involved, he'd started to build a profile for the younger boy as well.

Bruce moved to sit on the edge of the bed and reached for the boy's hand. Matt squeezed back, his grip was weak but intentional. Bruce glanced up. Matt was awake.

Well, that was a good sign overall even if it did make things less convenient.

Matt lifted a hand weakly, tapping at the breathing mask. Bruce leaned forward and adjusted it so he could talk.

"Hi."

Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"You're not surprised I'm here?" He made it a question even though Bruce was certain he was right.

Matt shrugged, "Sooner or later." He had to pause to gulp in a few breaths. "What's got me?"

"There are spores in your lungs. The doctors aren't sure how you came into contact with them yet or why they seem to be affecting you so strongly." Bruce paused, "You're not the only case."

"Is it... an attack? Terry?"

"Your brother is fine. He hasn't shown any of the symptoms." He gripped his cane, planted it firmly, and met Matt's eyes. "Have you been doing anything I should know about?"

Matt smiled weakly. "Like reading Terry's books? Or going to his dojo?"

"Something I wasn't already aware of."

Matt tried to shrug, but it was more of a twitch. "Don't think so. Only the regular sneaking around."

Bruce huffed but settled back. "I know what you're training for."

Matt's eyes flew open from where they'd started to droop. "Terry?"

"Has been very distracted."

"Good, don't tell him yet. He'll be pissed."

"Yes, he will. He has every right to be." Bruce let his voice drop into the old gravely register. "But he's not the one you should be worried about."

"I can do it." Matt whispered through the breathing mask He was fading again. Bruce knew there wasn't much point in having this conversation right now. It would either be forgotten or pushed aside once the boy was back on his feet. He shook his head.

"I need to take a blood sample, then you can get some more sleep."

Matt offered his arm. Bruce took a set of vials from an inner pocket, disinfected a spot at the curve of his elbow, and filled two. 

Matt pressed a hand against the vein. "I'm gonna be okay right?" His voice sounded younger than it had the whole conversation. In that moment, he looked even younger than he was and Bruce felt every one of his years hang heavy on his frame.

"Your brother and I are going to make sure of it." Bruce reached forward, brushing his fingers over Matt's dark hair. The boy nodded and let his eyes close.

It had been a long time since Bruce had tried to comfort a child. Seeing Matt like this, terrified and trusting, brought back so many memories. He’d had so much, and lost so much. If he couldn’t save this boy, no one would blame him except himself. Maybe Terry.

He’d pushed them all away for a reason. 

He would make sure Matt go better, but after that they were done. He would cut off the boy’s access to the cave and its systems. He wasn’t going to let yet another child follow his path into the dark.

 

<><><>

 

Brian could feel the rose from three blocks and two levels away. Feel wasn't quite right; it was like the sun on his skin, no pressure, but there all the same. He could feel other things too; little things, green things. Since the guy had died, he'd been felt more then he'd thought possible. If he stood still for too long, moss started growing around his shoes. 

The rose would help. It had to help. Why else would he be able to feel it so strongly? 

The domed park was sparsely populated in the middle of a weekday. Nannies with strollers and homeschooled kids gathered around the play structure. The field was empty though, so he cut across it, looping around the bathrooms at a run. He hit the guy as he was turning the corner and started to fall. He caught his balance. The greenhouse was in sight.

"Sorry." He called out, pushing off the ground.

The guy caught his arm and Brian really looked at him for the first time. His heart sank. He was younger then Brian had first thought, a highschooler maybe, and he had a bright red seven spray-painted on his shirt.

"Not good enough dreg. How you gonna make it up to me?"

Brian tugged, twisting his arm, trying to get away.

"Hey what you got, Brick?"

Slag it! There were more of them. Brian's eyes danced over the short blond woman and a black guy with white lines tattooed on his arms.

"This twip just bumped into me. Gonna teach him some manners." Brick yanked on Brian's arm again. Brian started to lose his footing, then leaned into it. The kick connected with Brick's leg. He let go in surprise.

Brian stumbled again. Someone was cursing. He saw the greenhouse and it was like the clouds parting on a rainy day. He ran for it.

They were faster.

Brian slapped a hand against the glass, and one of them slammed into him. They spun him by the shoulders and shoved him up against the door. The black guy bent down and sneered at him.

"Think you can just hurt my friend like that and run?"

Brian hunched his shoulders. He knew what was coming and he couldn't stop it. Nothing ever stopped it.

The fist connected with a starburst of pain. Brian gasped. His vision whited out. There was a ringing sound like glass breaking, and the guy dropped him. He fell to his knees. His vision was still fuzzy but he could see the green of the grass, perfectly maintained here in the upper levels even in the dead of winter.

"What the kriff?"

Brian sucked in a breath and dared a look upward. They should have been kicking him by now; instead, they were staring at something over his shoulder. This time the crunch of breaking glass was clear and accompanied by the sound of twisting metal.

Green.

Leaves had broken through the glass. Vines were curling around the doorframe and twisting it. They were reaching out with thorn and root. 

Brian reached up and touched the edge of a leaf as it turned to the sun. He felt it. Felt his own fingers tracing over the stem as if it was his skin. Felt the push of fast growth and stretch that was so good but couldn't possibly be sustained. Felt the rush of pain as something sparked at the edge of the new growth and pushed back.

"No." he snarled as he turned. The blond had her hands out and they were glowing, yellow sparks falling from her fingers.

"It's the twip. He's feeding the weeds somehow." She called. The other two were behind her, fear being overtaken by anger on their faces.

She was right.

Brian didn't know how or why but she was right. The plants were his, the rose was his, and he was theirs. They were alive and he was alive and these dregs weren't going to push him around, not anymore. 

"This weed has thorns," he whispered and pushed.

The vines answered his call and shot forward. A hundred tendrils adding seasons worth of growth in seconds. Green overcame his vision until he couldn't see anything but the twisting leaves. His roses fought for a few more minutes, then the grass felt running feet. 

He let out a breath. 

The rose was there; a presence even over the green all around him. In the back of his mind, he heard a low feminin voice whisper -  _ well done. _

 

<><><><><>

 

The next time Matt woke up, it was Terry sitting in the visitor chair. He had his datapad out and was biting his lip at whatever was on the screen. The beeping of the machines picked up a notch and his brother looked up.

"Matty hey. how are you feeling?" Terry reached out, stroking a hand over Matt's hair, and adjusting the mask so he could talk.

"Thirsty?" His throat made the work a rasp.

Terry found a water bottle and gave him the straw. Matt closed his eyes as he drank and tried to fix where he was in his mind. He had to be Terry's little brother. He had to be afraid and confused which he was. He just couldn't show the determination under it.

"What happened?" Matt asked.

Terry hesitated, taking the water bottle back. "You're gonna be okay." He said instead of answering the question. "Mr. Wayne knows some great doctors and they're going to get you feeling better real soon." 

Matt licked his lips. He didn't want to hide. He didn't want Terry to hide from him. It hurt. Sure being a secret had helped before, but Mr. Wayne had to have safeguards in place by now. It would be so easy to open his mouth and say something.

He took a breath and it hurt, like hundreds of paper cuts in his lungs. He coughed, then couldn't stop; desperately trying to suck in air between the wracking spasms. He reached up, but the mask wasn't working. Then Terry was there twisting a knob and fitting the mask back over Matt's mouth and nose. The oxygen was laced with something cool. After a few gasps it kicked in and he was able to take a deep breath.

Matt turned to his brother, meaning to thank him. Terry was looking down at his hands, a hard expression on his face.  There was a spattering of red mist over his fingers. A chill went through Matt. Was it really so bad, that he was coughing up blood? What did that mean? It had to be bad, right?

There was a knock on the door, then a nurse entered before either of them could respond.

"Hello, looks like we had a spike in our vitals just now. I'm just going to make sure everything fine." She barely glanced at them, bustling over the machines and checking the readouts.

Matt caught Terry's gaze and made big worried puppy dog eyes. It wasn't as much of an act as he would have liked.

Terry cleared his throat and glanced at the nurse. "My brother's going to be okay, right?"

"Hmm, What?" the nurse glanced at Terry with a distracted smile. "Oh, yes, I wouldn't worry too much. He's in excellent hands and we caught it much earlier than the other cases that are coming in. He's got very good chances."

She didn't seem to notice how Terry stiffened but Matt did. 

"Well, looks like a false alarm. Try not to speak too much. It'll put more stress on your lungs and throat." The nurse turned and gave them a nod, "Try using a tablet if you need to say something longer." They nodded. She didn't wait to see if there was anything else they needed, just busted out of the room.

Terry hadn't relaxed. Matt squeezed his hand. Terry squeezed back and tried to smile, but it was easy to see it was fake.

It was almost a relief when Terry's phone buzzed. He answered it without looking, and after a minute of silence, cursed.

"I'll be there." Terry hung up and turned to Matt. "I've got to go, but I'm going to call Max and have her look in on you and Mom said she's going to come by as soon as she's off work. Why don't you get some sleep in the meantime?" This time the smile was more distracted then forced.

Matt nodded. The city needed Batman more than he needed his brother.


	7. Chapter 7

Commissioner Gordon was trying to get the Mayor off the phone when the call came in.

"Yes, Yes Sir." she gestured for officer Hawk to come in. He was still the new guy to the department and so got the job of passing any potential bad news to her. She hadn't bitten anyone's head off in ages, but for some reason they were still worried.

"I'll be right on that." The mayor tried to start in on something else, but she hung up before he could get the first sentence out. She took a moment to breath, before looking at Hawk. "Officer?"

"There's been an explosion at the domed garden on 19th. Uniforms on site are reporting killer plants ma'am. There are several civilians injured and they're requesting assistance."

She cursed, "Tell Weaver I want a strike team put together in ten minutes, anyone with the old Ivy vaccines. Do we know the source?" She was up and walking past him by the time he answered.

"The system came up with something about a greenhouse, but we don't know what triggered it, and it's definitely not staying in the greenhouse now." Hawn informed her, on her heels.

She nodded, letting the failure motions of getting a team together and getting suited up take over while her mind chewed on the problem in the background. The garden on 19 was flagged, but low priority. the same way a lot of things from the old days were. Ivy was dead to the best of anyone's knowledge. This would be a hell of a time for her to come back. 

By the time they got there the regular Uniforms had set up a perimeter and were happy to hand over the problem. The green stretched twenty feet up the glass walls at some points. In a few places the glass had broken, or doors hadn't been closed in time, but luckily the plants didn't seem inclined to venture far into the cold. The plants themselves were the fast growing vines she'd been expecting, but mixed in were the long blades of overgrown grass, Rhododendrons with their big flowers and dark leaves. There were ferns, patches of bamboo sprouting at random and even several small trees trying to catch up with the rest of the growth.

Say what you like about Ivy She'd always known what she was doing. Her background in biology had always let her perfectly balance whatever environment she created.  This just seemed haphazard. Each plant was fighting it's nabors as much as the people trying to keep them back. Gordon didn't know if that was a good thing or not. On the one hand it meant there might not be a mind behind this, no quick off switch. On the other hand it meant they might be able to salvage the situation without sending in a strike team. 

It bothered her that she didn't know why it was happening. Gordon let her people get to work, taking over the safe zone, and went to make a call.

 

***

 

Brian looked up at the winter sun through a curtain of new spring leaves. "I'd heard stories but..."

"I know." the voice was like a soft whisper of wind through branches. It could have been the plants or some soundsystem that the plants hadn't managed to disrupt yet, or even his own imagination. He wanted to believe it, to trust it, but he didn't know what difference it would make. 

Brien breathed in and savored the smells of polin and new growth. "I don't know what to do next." The plants at the edges were screaming. Some were being outright attacked, humans trying to stop the wild expansion. Others were blocked by the cold metal and ice coated pavement that ringed the dome.

"What do you want?"

Brien slumped. That wasn't a good question. When you didn't have a future, didn't know if you'd survive the night or if you did, then how you'd find food, avoid the const and social traps... When you didn't have a future you couldn't have dreams. The question of what he wanted ended with overworked school counselors who couldn't do anything except spout pretty words. The question came tauntingly from older kids, who only asked so they could take whatever it was away. The question was a jab, an insult, followed up with a disgusted pitying look by people who pretended they were so much better just because they had a decent family and something to eat every night.

The voice of the green didn't mean it like that, but it still hurt.

"I want..." He paused, licked his lips. What could he say to make them understand?

"I want to be safe. I don't want to have to run or fight anymore. I want..." A dark thought coiled deep in his gut, because he'd never be able to stop. If he stopped running, stopped fighting, he'd die. Maybe he'd die cold in the gutter, or beaten by some gang members for kicks. If he stopped fighting right now he'd probably get picked up by the cops. They'd lock him up. They'd keep him away from the sun and the soil. No more plants for him, not with all the legends of what Poison Ivy could do

"That thought, what is it? What secret desire does your heart hold?" The voice was more solid now, more feminine. He closed his eyes and imagined her. Poison Ivy would understand. If she was standing behind him, right where the rose was, then it made sense he could hear her voice. He let the dark anger take root, and blossom.

"I want them to know what it feels like," Brien growled. He'd fought to survive every day for as long as he could remember. He wasn't some swamp monster or forest child. He'd grown up like the dirty moss that clung to the bottom of the gottam bridges. He was like the weeds that grew up through cracks in the pavement. 

He would be like the trees that the city planted on sidewalks to look pretty, only for their roots to spread wide, cracking through the asphalt prison. He was a child of Gotham, and he would bring the city to its knees.

 

***

 

Ian was more than glad to take charge of the civilians. He didn't have any of the old Ivy vaccines, but he wasn't alone in that. They didn't know if any of them would work anyway. From what he could remember, some of Ivy's poisons could hypnotize people. Being put to sleep or poisoned was bad enough, but being turned into a puppet was too much.    

There'd been a small group of children in the park, their caretakers, a pair of men on their lunch break, a few teenagers, and a scattering of others. They'd been herded together and left in a quickly erected emergency tent to await medical clearance. Most of them were shivering, all of them seemed scared. They hadn't gotten to the point of being angry and demanding answers yet, but Ian knew it was coming. To head off the argument, he showed his recorder to one of the men, smiling a little in apology.

"I need to take a statement, Can you tell me what happened?"

The man shook his head, "I was sitting on a bench on the west side. I hadn't even started eating, then all of a sudden--" he glanced back at the dome. The walls of the tent were opake but the changing light through the new growth was visible and he shivered.

Ian nodded, "When would you say it started?"

The man ran a hand through his hair, glancing around as if the time was printed somewhere. He never got a chance to properly answer because one of the women bustled forward.

"Officer, my daughter's been poisoned, you have to let us go to the hospital." The woman's voice hovered on the breaking point between stern and frightened.

Ian stood and called on all his crisis training to keep his tone level. "Let me see her."

The girl was about ten years old. She was wearing a pink jacket and a purple hat with little flowers on it. She was also gasping, her face slowly changing color. Some of the other civilians had pulled away in fear but one of the other mothers was brave enough to hold her, helping her sit upright.

Ian clicked on his radio, and tilted his head to his shoulder to speak into it. "Confirmed affliction, a little girl, maybe ten years old."

"Eleven, last month." the girl's mother said. There were tears threatening from the corners of her eyes.

Ian nodded, "what's the ETA on the ambulance?"

"Four minutes out."

"Confirmed." Ian tried to smile, "It's going to be okay. The ambulance is almost here. Just keep taking deep breaths, that's it." He wasn't sure what he was saying, or if the girl could even understand him though it all, but that wasn't the point. He was the authority figure here. he had to look like he knew what he was doing. he had to stay calm, so everyone else would too.

"Oh frag this, I ain't staying here breathing poison!" 

Ian cursed internally, so much for everyone staying calm. He stood and faced the young man who had spoken. The kid pushed out his chin, trying to look tough. Ian noted the gang symbol on his jacket, before meeting the kid's gaze and holding it.

Ian didn't like this kind of power play, but he understood it. Some people walked around like the world owed them everything, and the only way to make them sit down and shut up, was to shove it in their face. The sevens might have mets in their number but Ian had personally faced Shriek and spellbinder. He'd been tortured, and he was still here, still fighting. He was these people's protector right now, and there was no way some gang-banger was going to throw his weight around under his watch.

Without breaking eye contact, Ian clicked on the recorder. "Your name for the record?"

"Fuck you. I'm leaving."

"it is a city mandate that whenever a citizen comes into contact with a new potentially dangerous substance that they get cleared by a doctor before they are released. The EMTs are on their way. Please sit down." The words were standard, btu Ian filled them with cold unwavering resolve.

The teen glanced around, shifting as he sneered at Ian, "Slag that. It ain't no unknown substance, it was that kid. You should be hunting him down, not gettin' on my case."

Ian's mind raced, though he tried to keep it off his face. If a meta was responsible for the plant that changed everything. And if it was a child... anyone with that much power would be dangerous, but a child even more so. He lifted the recorder, keeping his tone level.

"Can you describe this person?"

The teen rolled his eyes, "A kid, ratty jacket, and oh yeah, he was controlling all the plants."

Ian took a breath, ready to fight for every detail he could scrounge, but the EMT's arrived before he could.

One of them bent over the little girl. Ian met the teen's eyes again and nodded pointedly to the bench. The kid sat, crossing his arms. Other officers had arrived with the EMTs so Ian wasn't worried about him causing trouble.

"Is anyone else having trouble breathing?" one of the EMTs asked

Another of them came forward and started checking another child. They said something into a radio and people started moving. Ian stepped back before he could get caught up in the rush. He needed to talk to Gordon. She needed to know there was a good chance that this disaster was being directed.

Ian slipped out of the tent jus in time to hear glass shatter and a chorus of shouts erupted from the dome's main doors.  A moment later he was running straight into the chaos.


	8. Chapter 8

Terry scanned the alert and decided Wayne was right. The universe did conspire to throw crazy super-villains at him at the worst possible times. He didn't have time to get back to the cave so he headed for the roof, calling the batmobile to him as he raced up the stairs. Terry had never had to fight plants before but Wayne was paranoid enough that the plant-killer used on Ivy was still a standard function.

Terry scanned the roof, and the nearby buildings. He couldn't pick out any cameras but that didn't mean there weren't any. Setting his scrambler, he ducked into the shadows, pulling on the suit with practiced efficiency. He was ready when the car arrived moments later, easily settling into the mindset he used as Batman. 

Flying over the dome with the camo on gave him a wide view of what was happening. The plants had taken over and almost everything inside was obscured. Greenery was trying to escape from the major entrances, but hadn't yet tried to break the glass. Gordon's squad had just arrived, and were setting up a perimeter. 

Strategically, it wouldn't be an easy fight. The plants were well entrenched and every gateway was defended. They could try coming up through the ventilation system or the sewers, but that would negate the advantage the cold was giving them. If property damage wasn't an issue Terry would have been inclined to just blow a hole in the dome and drop in some weedkiller. But Bruce had been after him about collateral damage recently and the fallout could be worse than just the one structure.

Batman clicked the radio. "Anyone receiving?"

Bruce was scheduled to be and Wayne-powers for the day so Batman wasn't surprised when it was Max who spoke up instead.

"I'm online. Just got to the hospital. The doctors were giving Matt the antidote when I got here. He's going to be okay."

Terry let out a low breath. That was good. It made it easier to focus on what he needed to do next. "You're still at the hospital?"

"Yes, do you need me at the cave?"

He considered. Having Max patch in from the hospital would mean a weaker signal. She might have to log out if someone started asking what she was doing, or if Matt woke up. Keeping the batman thing from his brother felt like a betrayal. There were so many times in the past few months that he'd been about to say something as if Matt knew, only to catch himself. If Matt knew he wouldn't have had to be so scared when he got sick.

Terry pushed thoughts of his brother aside and answered the question. "Stay there for now. I need specks on this dome, the faster the better."

"Right." Batman could imagine Max's nod as she slipped into her own version of the tightly controlled efichency. "Structural weaknesses or infiltration points?"

"Both, the whole place is hostile territory. Aslo why here? It's clearly defensible but it's not exactly a valuable target."

There was the sound of fast typing as Max went to work. Terry spent the time inventorying his own resources. He only had three canisters of weed-killer, but at least it was the condensed pressurized stuff. The canisters were only as long as his forearm, and would be easy to carry.

"Okay. Initial results: Four main entrances. I'm assuming the cops have got those covered. It's not structurally unsound, but it's not a fortress. Or you could try coming up through the purification system. Breaking any of the roof panels will give you access to the whole dome." Max cursed quietly, "I think I found why here. There was a rose in the greenhouse. The old man had it flagged as a watch site. Apparently it's a rare breed, that Ivy showed an interest in back in his day. He was uncertain if it had any of her power, but given the current situation, I'm inclined to say so."

Terry was about to ask for more detail when the sound of screaming and broken glass came up from below. "Keep looking," he barked instead grabbed at the cockpit controls. Three canisters, he'd have to make them count. Clipping two to his belt, he prepped the third, flared out his wings and fell towards the battle.

Batman took in the scene with a glance. A tree had sprouted in the middle of the south entrance, it's branches reaching through the doorway, and pushing through the now broken frame. Officers with fire axes had been trying to keep it back. Two of them were still at it, while a third grabbed at a fourth. That last was tangled in some kind of vine. The vine was growing faster then the plants around it, fast enough to see. 

The man on the ground yelled out another curse and someone, Gordon, ran forward. She waved something over the vine coating it in white. A solid kick and the vine shattered. She turned, barking orders for the downed man to be taken away. 

Whatever she'd done, the vines didn't like it. By the time she'd finished speaking they were back in force, curving out blindly, thorns raking the air. 

Batman kicked on his boot-jets and let loose with the plant killer. It came out in a spray of purple mist. Gordon saw him just in time to step back, raising a hand to shield her face.  It took a second, but the toxin kicked into effect. Leaves withered, and blossoms shriveled, slowly clearing a stripe in the battlefield. 

"You alright?" Batman asked, keeping his eyes on the blackberry plant.

"Fine. What have we got?"

He sent another short burst at a patch of saplings that got too close, "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a bunch of out of control plants."

Gordon stepped forward enough to spray some kind of ice weapon at another collection of branches. "If you don't have any theories you can just say so."

Batman grunted, "You know anything about a rose?"

She hesitated, then cured under her breath, "I might." Gordon half turned looking back at her officers, took a breath and coughed. When she didn't stop Batman glanced at her. Gordon was bent, scowling as she tried to suck in air. One of the officers ducked forward. He was young, the guy from the filtration plant. He didn't have a weapon. Instead he ducked under Gordon's arm and sported her as they took a step back. 

Batman spread another layer of plant killer to buy them time to retreat.  It was slow going, even as other officers stepped forward to fill the gap. Gordon's ice weapon and his toxin were the only weapons they had that seemed to be doing any real damage. The only real advantage they had was that the plants weren't intelligent.

"Commissioner?"

Batman spoke over the young officer before he could start to panic. "I've seen these symptoms. Tell the doctors she's got the new respiratory infection." Terry internally cursed their luck. Of all the people to go down, the Commissioner was the worst. The other cops might fight beside him but they wouldn't take his orders. At least they had an antidote. They might not be able to kill the rose or whatever this was, but they could hold it back until they had more information.

"Get her to a hospital." Batman ordered, and turned back to the dome.

"Batman."

He spun on the officer, "I told you to get her out of here."

The guy nodded, "witnesses say there's a kid in there, a new meta." 

Batman's mind spun. That... That changed things. Either the kid didn't know what they were doing or they were lashing out. Either way things could go bad very fast. Right now none of the attacks were focused, if that changed the officers on the ground were as good as dead. Batman wouldn't be enough to stop them.

Batman nodded, "Got it, go."

This time the officer didn't hesitate. He bend to get a better grip and mostly carried Gordon to the waiting ambulances. 

Terry turned back to the mess of foliage, and sub-vocalized to Max, "You get all that?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to track heat signatures, but so far no luck."

"Don't bother, just find me a way in. I'm going to finish this."

 

***

 

Matt bit his lip as Terry's words came through Max's tablet, "I'm going to finish this." 

It was the kind of thing Matt had heard dozens of times, and it made his pulse race. He wished he was there, wished he could see it; his brother in full cowl fighting off the vines like he was in one of the stories from fifty years ago. 

Maxx tapped at the tablet. "the largest heat signature is to the west. If someone's directing things they're probably there. Looks like the windows are clearer above twenty feet."

"Got it." Terry replied.  The sound of more breaking glass came through the coms. 

Matt let out a short "Ha" of victory.

Max's head snapped up, her eyes locking onto his. "Slag." she whispered. She swiped at the tablet, and it let out a little powering down sound. 

"What no, he needs us." Matt protested.

At the same time Max asked, "How much did you hear?"

Matt waved a hand, then realized the mask was still in the way of any real conversation and pulled it away. He'd been going in and out when the doctor gave him the antidote, but he was feeling a lot better now.

"It's fine. I already knew. Now turn it back on, he's going to need us."

"You what?" Max asked incredulously.

"I've known for months. Wayne knows that I know, now come on."

"Does Terry know?"

"Mr Wayne knows," Matt tried.

"So Terry doesn't know."

"No look, That thing where you guys lost your memory? I saved you guys. Or I helped at least. I was Robin" 

Max opened her mouth but couldn't seem to find words.

Okay so maybe that was a step too far. Matt really wished everyone would stop treating him like he was five. He was thirteen. He had more training then Terry did when he started. Matt rolled his eyes. "Max!"

"No," she found her voice, "No, even if you know, Wayne will kill me if he finds out I let you--" She waved a hand randomly. "You're still sick."

"I'm feeling better--" he protested.

"Not the point."

"Look" Matt tried to sound reasonable rather then desperate, "It's not gonna hurt anything. I'll just listen. I won't say anything, I promise." Not unless he saw anything that they missed, he didn't add.

Max shook her head. She stood, pointed at him, then shook her head again. "No, sorry, no." Max started for the door, but hesitated. Matt thought she was going to look back, but instead she just lifted her chin and lengthened her stride. She shut the door behind her without looking back.

Matt slumped into his collection of pillows. Two people had learned about him in less than a day and neither one thought he could handle himself. Sort of. Wayne had already known, but the point stood. Well he would show them. He didn't need Max or her tablet to hack into the batcomputer. His backpack was right there on the side table and no one knew about the spare earpiece he had.

Matt swung his legs off the bed, took a moment to steady himself, and stood. The room only swayed a little. He glanced at the machine beside the bed. Flipping a few switches silenced any alarms that would go off, and he plucked the sensors off his arm. 

It only took a moment of digging to find the earpiece. Matt slid it into place, just in time to hear the system alert.

"Commissioner Gordon admitted to Gotham General."

 


	9. Chapter 9

  
  
"Commissioner Gordon admitted to Gotham General"

Matt knew that there were alerts in place for certain events. If a name on Mr. Wayne's list showed up unexpectedly on a police report, the system reported it. If there was a fire or other emergency at a flagged location, the system reported it. If someone in the know ended up in the hospital, the system definitely reported it. 

The commissioner was here in the hospital, and so was he.

Matt tossed aside the idea of going after Max and dug in his bag for the rest of his equipment stash. His tablet was first. He needed to hack into the hospital system and see what room she was in.  He couldn't just walk in of course. She probably wouldn't recognise him, and certainly none of the cops she had guarding her would. For that he needed a mask.

Matt briefly wished for the Robin costume that was displayed in the cave. It was nothing next to Terry's suit, but it had been a huge help the one time he'd gotten to wear it. Plus there was the belt and all the amazing gadgets that Matt had never gotten to try out. This time he'd have to make due with the equipment he'd cobbled together over the last few months. Spare wire from Terry's grapple. A Halloween mask from a few months back with a bit of costume glue to keep it on. He wished he had his running jacket, it was red and skin tight and he'd begged his mom for it for situations exactly like this one. It was too thin to wear in the show though, so all he had was the more puffy down coat, which wouldn't work for what he wanted. At least he had his gloves. 

Matt set a program lose on the hospital computers while he dug in his bag for his clothes. He hadn't been wearing anything flashy that day on the ice. The jeans and long sleeved dark blue shirt would do, even if they weren't his colors.  He pulled a cap down low to help hide his face and hair. The program beeped just as he was finishing getting dressed.

Commissioner Gordon was on the same floor of the hospital, just down the hallway from Matt's room. Perks of Bruce's connections. She was being treated for the same respiratory infection he'd had. They had the antidote now so all signs were that she'd recover quickly.

What the hospital systems couldn't tell him was how Terry was doing and what was going on with the new villain.

Getting into her room was a mix of patience and luck. 

There was a cop at her door, but there was also a vending machine less then twenty feet away. Robin only had to stand there dithering for a handful of minutes before his empty room was discovered. The noise that went up about Mr. Wayne's prized patient going missing pulled the cop away long enough that Robin was able to duck inside.

The lights were only at half power in Gordon's room. She'd been hooked up to a set of machines like his had been and there was already a bag of blue liquid attached to her arm. Robin crept closer trying to see if her eyes were open behind the mask.

"Freeze."

Robin stopped as he was about to take a step. He was so stupid. He hadn't even checked the room properly. Thank god Terry and Mr Wayne didn't know or he'd never get to go out on patrol. He turned slowly and deliberately to see the cop sitting in the corner that had been hidden by the door.

The uniform was for Gordon's unit but the rank on the shoulder was a low one. The stunner pointed dead center at Robin's chest wasn't comforting. Silver lining, at least this guy wasn't underestimating him because he was a kid. Also there was something about him...

"Who are you?" The cop asked.

It was the voice that finally made it click. Robin knew this cop: Officer Hawk. Now he really hated not having his uniform. They could have skipped this whole stunner thing and gotten right to helping Batman. But maybe there was still a way to convince him.

"I can show you," Robin said, gesturing at his leg. Officer Hawk didn't seem to get it, but he nodded slowly anyway. Slowly Robin knelt and rolled up the leg of his jeans, revealing the long scar he'd gotten on his first adventure. Officer Hawn looked at it for a moment before Robin saw his eyes widen.

"You're--" He relaxed putting the stun gun aside. He glanced at Commissioner Gordon then at the door. He didn't even have to stand to flip the lock.

"I'm here to help. Batman is--"

"I know," Hawk was already nodding. "I told him there was a meta in the dome, but then The commissioner was poisoned. I thought she was immune to all the old Ivy toxins, but, well..."

Robin internally breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't hadn't been one hundred percent sure that Ian would remember him and some kid wondering in and just saying he was robin wouldn't have convinced anyone. He'd already gotten lucky that it was Officer Hawk and not some stranger, he didn't need to push it.

"This is a new one, it's been spreading through the whole city." Robin trailed off, his mind working furiously.

Officer Hawk tilted his head in question.

"I think we have a bigger problem."

Ian ran a hand over his face, "Of course we do... what is it?"

Robin pulled out his tablet and checked that he still had access to the hospital systems. It was fairly simple to run a search and find everyone infected, and their addresses. 

"Commissioner Gordon wasn't the only one infected at the dome was she?"

Ian shook his head, "No, there was a little girl, and possibly others."

"This virus  has been spreading for a couple weeks now, but according to her bloodwork Gordon got a really high dose. Everyone knows Ivy used poisons so it makes since that this new plant guy is responsible. But if he is then why make people sick so randomly? There has to be something connecting it all. I know it's important I can feel it." Robin keyed in a program to map the addresses but he couldn't see a pattern. "What else? There's something here, I know it! The dome, I was at the ice rink..."

"Public places?" Ian said, grasping at straws.

Robin glanced up, "Not just public, city owned. Oh Frag." Robin looked up, meeting the young officer's eyes. "The domes are part of the air filtration system. If someone doesn't stop it, everyone on city property will get the same dose of poison the Commissioner got."

Officer Hawk hissed in a breath through his teeth. "And Batman's already fighting this guy."

Robin nodded, "Yeah, it's up to us."

 

<><><>

 

Once Batman had broken through the outer rim of plants he paused. The interior of the dome was eerily still, sounds distant and not even wind moving the leaves.  The grass of the soccer field was almost waist high, the patches of flowers wildly overgrown, the buildings and play area were all covered in climbing vines. Green was squeezed into every spare inch. Here the pants weren't in rapid growth. It was as if they simply couldn't fit in anything else so all the activity was pushed to the edges. 

He landed lightly on one of the Soccer goalposts, and cycled through his visor filters. There was enough pollen in the air that anything more then a hundred feet away was blurry to his regular vision. Inferred wasn't precise enough to find the meta responsible. X-ray showed him where the buildings were under the foliage, and there to his left, a human skeleton.

Slipping out a baterang Batman extended his wings and glided forward with his camouflage on. 

Even knowing where the meta was it took Batman a moment to spot him with his normal vision.  The guy was smaller then he'd expected, sitting in the grass, covered with pollen as if it was sand at the beach. He was just a kid.

Terry hesitated. 

He hadn't thought... 

In Gotham if you saw wild overgrowth you thought Ivy. Everyone did it, even those born long after she was gone. She wasn't the only plant meta to ever live though. There had been plant heroes, and scientists. people who never wore a mask or cape but instead tried to end world hunger.

Terry took a long look at the kid. He was Matt's age, too thin, head tipped back like he was taking in the sunlight as much as the plans were. 

What had he done so far that was really so terrible? No one had been killed. As far as Terry knew no one had even been seriously injured. So the kind had lost control, it happened. He probably didn't have any idea how his powers worked.

"I know you're there." The kid said. He was looking at the air about ten feet to Batman's left. "I may not be able to see you, but the plants can."

Terry spent a moment weighing his options, then decided the risk was worth it. He dropped to the ground trying to land on what had once been a path rather then where the grass was thicker, turning off the camouflage as he did so.

"Batman." The kid didn't seem surprised.

"You need to stop," Terry tried to keep his voice even. He didn't want to sound like he was threatening but he had no idea what would set the kid off and they were on the clock.

"Stop what?" The kid grinned all wide and innocent.

Terry waved a hand at the growth around them. "You're the one making everything grow right? So ease off."

"Why?"

The question was light, curious, and it made something clench in Terry's gut. This wasn't how this conversation was supposed to go.

"It's dangerous."

The kid pulled his feet under him and stood. The grass parted around him, creating a path without even a gesture. 

"Yeah, life is pretty dangerous, but we survive anyway."

Batman flipped the cap off his last canister of plant killer, and thought with a wisp of regret that at least he had tried.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

Terry had fought a lot of people. He'd fought whole gangs, people with crazy powers that put them leaps and bounds above human, and people with the kind of training that classified them as living weapons. All that he could handle, he'd been trained for it, but this? taking down a kid in a threadbare jacket... it didn't sit right. He knew the kid wasn't as defencless as he seemed, and the whole dome was proof. Moreover Terry had been trained to assess threats and deal with them. He'd do his job, even if he didn't like it.

Sinking into a ready stance Batman decided to end this fight quickly.

He stepped in, going for a grab rather than an outright punch. A headlock, get the kid off the ground, add a little knockout gas and this would all be over. Batman could hand him over to someone who knew how to handle this kind of thing.

Then the grass tangled around hit back foot, derailed that plan. 

The kid watched him from a careful yard back, just out of range. his shoulders were hunched up, but there was the start of a smile on his face. "I think," he licked his lips and nodded, "Yeah, I think I want to be Thorn. That's a good name right?" The kid looked at the plants as if they could answer him.

Batman took the opening. He flipped open the last canister of plant killer. The spray created an arc of sickly yellow-brown starting at Batman ankle and cutting a swath between him and Thorn. 

Thorn cried out, throwing up his hands. Batman lept, kicking out. The kid fell back, crying out as the grass cushioned his fall. Batman kicked on his boot jets before he could get trapped again. Thorn grabbed something, throwing it upwards. 

The handful scattered, and for a moment Batman thought it was just sand, then he realised his mistake. Seeds pattered harmlessly on his armor, and a few of them stuck. 

Thorn reached up, hand open. For a moment nothing happened, then green tendrils sprouted from the seams of Batman's boots, his ankles, and knees, anywhere there was a joint or gap in the armor. The boots stuttered and Batman twisted in the air. Somehow it helped. Most of the sprouts fell away, letting Batman gain a little more height. He needed to end this, fast.

Batman drew a stun-batarang. The ice batarangs did some damage to the plants but he didn't carry as many of them. In the middle of winter he hadn't thought they'd do much good. The stunners wouldn't do jack on the plants but there were even odds that if he knocked out the kid, the plants would stop.

Below, Thorn was muttering something to himself. Batman wasn't about to give him the time to come up with a plan.

His aim was true, but Thorn glanced up. He dived to the side just in time. The grass cushioned him. Batman flicked his wrist again, launching a second stunner. This time the grass closed over the kid, weaving into a serviceable shield.  

A second later a cloud of pollen turned the air yellow. 

Batman instinctively rose a few inches higher. He didn't like this. He had a possible solution, but it was a messy one. Not for the first time he wished Wayne was on coms. He couldn't ask Max, not with something like this. Batman was the one who made the hard choices.

"Last chance to give up piecefully. Ten seconds." 

Below him the plants rustled. Batman flipped through the visor settings, trying to figure out if the kid had moved or not. His mental countdown hit zero.

Batman unclipped a small detonator from his belt. It wasn't nearly powerful enough to get rid of the plants but he didn't need it to. The pollen in the air was so thick it would go up like sawdust.

Setting the timer for two seconds, he cranked up his personal shield and let the detonator fall.

 

 

<><><>

 

Ian only had to flash his badge to get through the perimeter around the filtration plant. It was still a crime scene and he'd been one of the arresting officers, of course he had access. Sneaking in a child, even if that child was Robin shouldn't have been as easy as telling him to duck down in the passenger seat, but to be fair the place only had a skeleton guard. Everyone who could be spared had been called in the help with the dome.

Pulling to a stop Ian looked at the front door. There was a guard there too. There was likely only one or two more inside, even considering how essential the place was to city infrastructure. Once they were inside, that was it. Or rather, once he was inside.

Ian pulled a spare headset from the charging doc and handed it to Robin. During the drive, the kid had linked himself into the car's signal and by now he was probably hacking into all the files ah HQ. If this came back to bite him it would be Ian's own fault and he'd likely lose more than his job.  He wondered if he'd get protective custody in jail or if they'd let him hang...

Robin took the com, fitting it over his ear.

Ian took a breath. He shouldn't be intimidated by a kid who wasn't even in costume. One little mask did not count. Not that intimidated was quite right... Robin had saved him, they'd saved each other. When he thought about not trusting Robin, something broke. It just didn't fit. IT was all hypothetical and he still tried to find a reason that would let the kid off, mind control or hypnosis or a cloned evil twin.

Focus. Ian looked down at Robin and said what he had to. "You're not coming in. You can direct me from here. I'm sure you've already found the layout of the place. Once I'm at the control room you can tell me what systems to shut down. Anything else, well, I'll network you in if I have to but you have to stay here."

Robin or not, hero or not, the kid was still recovering. This problem didn't need him on sight, not if Ian was there to flip the switches. Plus the commissioner would skin him alive (even more then she was already going to) if she found out about it.

Robin nodded, most of his focus still clearly on the tablet.

Ian was conflicted. on the one hand, this was what he wanted, on the other he wasn't sure Robin would actually follow through. Well at least he had done what he could. 

Ian flashed his badge to the guard just inside the entrance and headed for the control room. It was about what he would have expected. The door was thick with a airtight seal and a ridiculously sized keypad, retinal scan combo lock next to the door. Before he could touch the lock the light flipped to green. That had to be Robin.

It was kind of nice to have someone watching his back like that.

From the inside the room was a moderately comfortable shell over a concrete box. There were three stations, that each seemed to control a different section of the complex. The walls had some nice watercolor posters and when he sat down the chair was reasonably comfy but that was about the best that could be said for it. 

The screens for the leftmost system lit up and a filtered voice came through his earpiece. "You need to pull up a map for the 11th district and close off the valves as I list them." 

Ian nodded, "Right, looks like it needs a login."

"Username SisAdmin, password: 84tm4nl1v3s"

Ian started typing. He didn't know this system but it seemed straightforward enough. He narrowed the scope to the 11th district and started checking off numbers as Robin listed them. On his secondary screen graphs and numbers changed from yellow to green and back again, so he figured he was making some progress.

Then an alert popped up, and all the graphs went into the red.  Ian tore his hands away from the keyboard, but before he could ask the voice was in his ear again. 

"It's the dome. It's too late."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, so I have finished writing this story... mostly, a few last edits.   
> That means that the last few chapters (13 in total) will be coming a bit faster.


	11. Chapter 11

Max entered the cave at a run. She'd been trying to coordinate with Terry from the car but this far underground the only way to get a signal was by connecting to the cave network and while her car was self-driving it wasn't the batmobile. 

She skidded to a stop when she saw Wayne already in the main chair. 

"Your meeting?" she panted.

"Postponed, I just arrived."

"Shway, I was helping Terry get into the dome." She pointed to the relevant portion of the screen where Terry had made it inside. His visor cam showed him talking to some kid. Max's gut clenched. Was that the meta? He couldn't be older than Matt. She didn't like it. the whole situation was a mess, but it was out of her hands now. She had to trust Wayne and Terry. 

"Matthew McGuinnis what do you think you're doing?" Wayne growled out of nowhere.

Max searched the screens, trying to figure out what he'd seen. There was a second blip on the map, marking an agent in the field. Why was Matt connecting to the network? She'd told him she wouldn't help him. Max bit her lip. Matt had said that Wayne already knew that he knew the secret but Wayne's tone wasn't exactly supportive. 

Moreover, Matt's beacon wasn't at the hospital.

"Is he hacked in through a police car?" Max asked without really believing it.

"A police car sitting outside the filtration plant." Wayne growled.

"No wait, look I totally have a good reason." Matt's voice came through the speakers even as Wayne started typing. "The poison, the same poison that got me. it got the commissioner too and we realized that it was the dome. That's where the poison is coming from. Officer Hawk is helping me. We just need to shut down the lines connected to the dome. That's it, nothing dangerous." 

Wayne was growling something under his breath but the information he was coming up with all said Matt was right.

"Fine," Wayne barked, "I'm taking control of the link with Officer Hawk, you're done."

"But--" Matt whined. 

"Don't push it. We are going to have a serious conversation when this is done."

On a seperate channel Officer Ian Hawk said, "looks like it needs a login."

With two short commands Wayne had the channel with Matt minimized and a voice filter over his own response. "Username: SisAdmin, password: 84tm4nl1v3s"

Mr Wayne pulled up a map of the filtration system. From what Max could tell he could have hacked in and done it all himself but have a man on the inside was always faster and easier. Wayne noticed her looking and paused in his instructions.

"Keep an eye on Terry," He said, and she nodded. 

Bringing her attention back to Batman, she watched Terry exchange blows with some kind of vine, or no it was grass. 

She knew by now that speaking while he was fighting was as likely to distract him as it was to help, so Max bit her lip and waited.Terry took to the air, kicking out with his jets when seeds started sprouting on his legs.

"Last chance to give up piecefully. Ten seconds." Terry said. He had a detonator. Max realized what was about to happen slapping at the controls to speak to him. She took a breath, but it was too late. The detonator fell.

The view from Terry's visor whited out. Max elt numb but her fingers were apparently still working since she could pull up Terry's vitals He was alive. His pulse was elevated which was to be expected. The suit was reporting a lot of minor failures, mostly heat but pressure damage too. No broken bones. Nothing that signaled a major injury. 

Max took a breath, ready to yell at him and demand to know exactly what he'd thought he was doing, but Wayne spoke first.

"It's the dome. It's too late."

"What do you mean?" Hawk asked.

Max took in what had happened on Wayne's side of the terminal, in mute horror, Wayne was typing madly, but like he'd said, it was too late.

"The dome is gone. There's going to be infections in the area, there's no getting around that. But the pressure also blasted through half the major channels we were trying to close. The only thing we can do now is mitigate the damage. You'll need to pull the master override on the main floor. That will lock down the whole system." Wayne spoke quickly but without even a hint of panic in his tone. Max wasn't sure if she envied that or if it made her even more nervous.

"Okay I--" Hawk cursed something from the other end of the radio. "I'm locked in. some kind of override I think, a safety measure."

It was true. Max watched as Wayne tried to override it, but the safety procedures were locked behind an extra level of security.

"I can do it," Matt said out of nowhere.

"No," Wayne growled immediately, but the old man was still focused on getting past the security, and didn't see the dot representing Matt's location shift.

"He's going in," Max reported.

"I can do this." Matt said again. I just go and flip the switch, easy. Besides I'm the only one here."

Wayne clenched a fist, then slowly let it go. "Fine." 

He slid the program that connected to Hawk's screen over to Max's side of the terminal, "Shut down all auxiliary processes and reroute everything you can back to the main lines." then he pulled up a map of the building and started directing Matt down the appropriate corridors.

Max turned to her own task. She adjusted the voice filters so Hawk would know a new person was speaking and said, "Are you there? I'm going to walk you through the shutdown sequence. You should still have access. Here's what you need to do..."

 

 

<><><>

 

 

Robin ran through the corridors, with nothing but his mask and Wayne's voice in his ear. The place was deserted, and didn't look like many people hung around even when it was at full capacity. The walls were that professional off-white of all government buildings, at least until he hit the main floor. there all pretence at this being any other government building ceiced, leaving only harsh industrial metal and concrete.

The space was huge, there were tanks of slowly swirling sludge and tanks of compressed gases. Pipes crisscrossed the space, painted different colors at intervals to mark what they contained and which way the contents should be flowing.

"It should be a large yellow and black switch on the east wall." Wayne said.

Robin nodded and spun around in the right direction. The switch was obvious when he saw it. There wasn't any piping to crawl through or obvious obstacles in his way. The switch was under a glass case, but even that only had a flip-switch keeping it closed not a real lock.

Robin grabbed the leaver and tugged it down into place.

The air shuddered as a low background hum he had barely even registered hearing, ground to a stop. There were three, then four seconds where all Robin could hear was his own panting breath. then there was a ping as something metal snapped. Something else let out a low grone.

"Did it work?" Matt asked frantically eyeing the switch and the door.

"Yes, but there's pressure in the valves, get out of there." 

Robin ran for it.


	12. Chapter 12

Batman hurt, a full body ache that he knew would last for days. That said, It could have been worse. He could move even if it hurt like a hell. No broken bones as far as he could tell though there might have been a few fractures. 

The suit was still working even if it kept flashing warnings in the corners of his vision. He didn't know if the cave could still read him but he couldn't get a read on them. Most of the finer sensors were off-line if they'd made it through at all. After a quick inventory he decided the boots were the worst loss. He might have been able to glide, but full flight would be out for a while.

The idea of falling into the explosion feet first had probably saved his life. It had stopped him from getting trapped between the shock wave and the now non-existing ceiling in any case. But it was still an explosion. Thank god he had a full body suit and not one of the old cape and cowl models. Note to self, try to get out of range of any explosions in the future.

The dome was a mess. Between the explosion and the plants the infrastructure was a lost cause. The pollen had gone up just as fast as he'd expected, but the plants hadn't. Everything was charred and there were plenty of leaves still smoldering, but the new growth was too green to set alight that fast. He didn't know if it was the fire or the fact that the kid was gone but the plants had stopped their rapid growth too. The snow outside had done just as well against the fire as it had against the plants. 

Laying on his back looking up at the dark sky as snow started to fall, Batman decided to put this one in the win column.

He gritted his teeth and tried to sit up. A proper scan of the area was out but glancing around showed he was alone. There was movement at the edge of the dome, probably the cops who had been fighting the plants. No sign of the kid.

If he'd had another option-- If he'd--

The kid could have escaped, but it was unlikely, and even if he had Batman was in no state to go after him. Most likely he was somewhere under the ash and broken branches. The police would find him or they wouldn't.

He forced himself to his feet. Slipping away was harder then it normally would be, and not only because of his injuries. The camouflage was a lost cause. That said, the area had already been cleared out because of the plants. Slipping around a few cops who were busy clearing out plants and getting the injured taken care of was straightforward enough.

He had to access the network from a remote terminal given all the damage to the suit. Getting the batmobile to land in a side street and slumping into it was about the most he could manage.

"Home Alfred." He muttered, and the autopilot took over from there.

 

<><><>

 

Ian watched from the control room as Robin ran into the complex. There was still a voice muttering on the other end of his radio, but didn't have the attention to spare to wonder about that. The screens were still blaring out warnings, only going farther into the red as Robin slammed the switch into place.

"Run," He whispered under his breath. "Get out of there, Robin. Run."

He ran, but it wasn't fast enough.

Ian was helpless to act as pipes burst and the gas flooded the main room spilling out into the hallways. Security doors started slamming shut. 

The voice in Ian's ear muttered, "oh no you don't." And Robin's way cleared, the doors closing only once he was clear. Robin stumbled as he made it to the entry hall. He managed to mostly break his fall but he didn't get up.

"Let me out." Ian babbled. "I'll get him back to the hospital, just get the doors open."

The voice didn't answer but the light by the door switched to green and a second later Ian was able to race into the hall. It took longer then it should have to get to the entry way and Robin, even moving at a full run. Falling to his knees by the small figure, Robin looked even more childlike, pale and soft, his face slack.

With his heart in his throat, Ian desperately checked for a pulse. Yes, Robin was alive, and breathing even if it was ragged. Scooping the child into his arms Ian ran for his car.

 

<><><>

 

Matt woke to the beeping of machinery and wondered if twice could be considered a habit. He felt... He felt okay all things considered. Terrible, but not as terrible as he could have been. There was another mask over his face, and a some kind of sensor on his wrist. In fact his wrist seemed to be handcuffed to the bed. He tugged at the cuff, wondering who had put it there and what they thought he'd done.

The last thing he remembered was running through some hallways after saving the city which was really no reason to get locked up.

"Easy. You were hurt, but you're going to be okay." Terry's voice came out of the soft darkness. A dark that was too dark now that he thought about it. There wasn't any light coming in from under a door or distant sound of nurses, or anything he'd come to expect from the last few days of hospital life.

"Terry?" Matt asked squinting into the darkness. His eyes should have adjusted by now. He didn't have a blindfold or anything.

"Just, do me a favor and don't freak out?" There was some shuffling and then a small click brought up a set of soft lights.

Matt was in a cave. The walls had been sanded down to smoothness but the original shape of the stone still came through. It was a very nice cave with all the modern conveniences. There were a dozen or more medical type machines set up on carts. The hospital style bed he was in was one of five all lined up along the wall with their own bed side tables and privacy curtains. Through an open doorway Matt could glimpse a larger space, filled with glass cases and some kind of computer.

Terry was in the bed next to him. It looked like had been asleep but as Matt twisted to get a better look, he pressed some buttons on the side of the bed and was lifted into more of a sitting position.

Matt winced.

Dark bruises covered nearly every inch of terry's skin that he could see, which was quite a bit since He'd been striped down to his undershirt. He had an IV the same color as Matt's own.

"How are you feeling?" Terry asked.

Matt scrambled to get the mask off his face. "Better then you, what happened? Was the fight at the dome that bad?"

Terry hesitated, "How do you know about that?"

Matt glanced away, down at his hands. He busied himself adjusting his own bed.

"How long have you known?"

"Umm, A while?"

"Matt!" Terry glared but Matt wouldn't meet his eyes. Eventually he let his head fall back against his pillow and breathed out slowly. "That thing last spring? You started acting different after that."

Matt shrugged, "I knew before then, but that's the first time I got involved."

"Slag it all," Terry said under his breath. "Well I guess that explains why you're not more freaked out. Welcome to the batcave and all that."

Matt grinned, "It's totally shway, but you know, it would be even more shway if I could actually take a look around." Matt rattled the cuff on his wrist.

"Not a chance twip, be grateful for what you've got."

Matt made a show of leaning out of bed to see as much as he could through the doorway. He'd been there before, but he'd never had a proper chance to look around.

Eventually Matt asked, "Are you okay?"

Terry looked at him evenly. Matt wondered if anyone had bothered to ask him that yet. 

Eventually he nodded, "Yeah, I'm gonna be okay." 


	13. Chapter 13

Matt got the whole story of what had happened in pieces over the next day and a half. 

Officer Hawk had gotten him back to the hospital at the end of it, but Max had hacked his file and they had quietly transferred him to the cave where Terry had already been resting. The official story, or at least the one his mom knew, was that Wayne had offered up space in the manor since the hospital had been flooded with new patients both from the dome explosion and the spores. The number of cases from the latter was a lot less then it might have been but the number still wasn't small. 

Word had gotten out that a meta human was at least partially responsible, which the public didn't like. They didn't know the meta was a kid though, so at least there was that. So far there had been no sign on Thorn, alive or dead.

Matt recovered quickly overall. He seemed to have developed a bit of an immunity from his first exposure to the toxin so even though the second exposure had been more concentrated, it faded faster. Terry wasn't as lucky. He had multiple hairline fractures in his legs and Matt had already seen the bruises. Matt offered to do what he could after he was allowed out of bed, bringing Terry food or books or just talking with his big brother. It was a relief to finally be able to openly ask questions. Terry seemed just as pleased, once he learned of Wayne's tacit approval of the knowledge. 

Neither of them seemed happy with his actions as Robin.

When Barbra Gordon showed up at the end of the second day Robin figured that 'not happy' was about the best he could get.

"He is a child Bruce." Gordon snarled at Mr. Wayne. 

They were in the middle of the cave, but not otherwise trying to be subtle.Matt felt no guilt eavesdropping when they had to know he was there.

"You were all children." Wayne said. It wasn't a denial but it wasn't exactly agreement either; Matt decided to take that as a good sign.

"And that somehow makes it better? No, I know how you are Bruce. I know exactly what you see in those boys. Matt is not another Tim."

Mr Wayne looked over at where Matt knew the suits were lined up in their glass cases. "If he's not allowed to be like Tim, he'll end up like Stephanie."

Matt couldn't see Gordon's face at his angle but he could see the anger and frustration in the line of her back and set of her shoulders.

"He's already ended up in the hospital. How badly does he need to get hurt before you draw the line."

"Did you know, he was hurt before too--"

"I know," Gordon interrupted him, "I debriefed Ian personally. He agreed because he recognized the scar. I'm not sure Matt realizes that officer Hawk could practically pick him out of a lineup now. Those domino masks never did anything to hide a person's features."

Matt winced. That comment was definitely directed at him.

"Hawk is a good man, and you'll keep an eye on him, but Barbara, you're still missing the big picture."

She crossed her arms, "Oh and what's that?"

"He's not the only one out there anymore. You've seen the numbers: Splicers, meta-humans, artificial augmentation. When I first put on that cape, I had to deal with the mob -- maybe a few crazies. By the time you and Dick joined up there were people like Doctor Freeze, Poison Ivy, Bane. Real Threats, real super-villains even if we didn't call them that at the time. The pattern is repeating." Wayne's voice was low, slightly imploring but not angry not even very intense for all that he was clearly invested in the subject.

Gordon shook her head, "So you'll throw a couple kids through the meat grinder for the greater good?"

"They know what they're getting into."

"That's always your excuse. We had no idea, any of us. We might have thought we knew but we were wrong."

Bruce was silent.

"Fine. I've never been able to stop you from doing anything, but I'll remind you that Batman is a vigilante not a hero. I will be going after them, and if I manage to catch them I will make sure they never put on a mask again even if I have to lock them up to do it."

Wayne almost smiled. "Whatever you need to do. As I recall, I've never been able to stop you either."

They just looked at each other for a long minute. Then Barbara Gordon turned and headed back up, out of the cave.

Bruce turned to look at where Matt was hiding in the shadows of the doorway. "Well?"

Matt stepped forward slowly. He looked at the computer, the trophies, the costumes in their cases. Finally he looked up at Mr Wayne.

"I did get hurt this time, but it wasn't because I was being Robin."

"It was the second time. Running into that building without a plan was foolish."

Matt shrugged, "I did have a plan. I even had backup. I just didn't have a filter mask."

Wayne snorted out something that might have been a laugh, "Fine. I'll speak to your mother about some sort of internship. If you want to keep doing this, you're doing it on my terms. You won't go out there again until I think you're ready."

Matt nodded, "Or there's another world-ending emergency that requires all hands on deck."

Wayne looked like he wanted to protest that statement, but couldn't.

Matt grinned up at him, "So, when do I get to meet the Titans?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, finally made it to the end of this story. I expected it to be longer...  
> But really, I like how it came out. I'm glad I pulled the first few chapters off my hard drive and went forward with them.  
> :)


End file.
